Sheetal Gill is a HR Business Partner – Provides HR consulting, strategy & coaching for start ups and businesses. In this guest post she shares her expertise on how to get the best out of new recruits.
Are you a small to medium-sized business considering employing new staff members?
If so, ensure you are up to speed with what you need to do legally and, learn how to get the very best from your new recruits. Let’s look at how you can achieve this.
Recruitment
Ensure you implement good recruitment processes. Review your process and advert to avoid them falling short of discrimination laws. For example;
- Criteria or wording stating the role would suit a mature or requiring 10 years experience could be deemed as age discrimination
- A full time position could indirectly discriminate against women
Prior to interview prepare questions and assessments to measure the essential job criteria. Set ideal answers for interview questions as this will ensure a fair and easy way to grade candidates and provide feedback to unsuccessful candidates if needed. Unconsciously interviewers tend to appoint candidates that are similar to them. This is unconscious bias which can be discriminatory. It’s important to be aware of this and select a candidate based on their ability to do the role.
Once the candidate has accepted the role you can send them an offer letter which outlines that the job offer is subject to satisfactory employment references, right to work in the UK and sight of qualifications (if applicable).
Contracts of employment
All employees have a right to a statement of main terms and conditions of employment within two months of starting their employment. A contract covers the basic terms such as pay, hours of work, location etc however employers can add to these depending on additional occupational terms e.g. bonus schemes.
Staff Handbook
These include all your policies and procedures for staff. The most important procedures all employers should implement are disciplinary and grievance procedures. These procedures should be tailor made to your business culture and needs.
A robust contract of employment and staff handbook are the best way to avoid future disputes.
Settling in new members of staff
An effective induction programme enables managers to integrate a new employee into the business so that they are encouraged to become a valued and motivated member of the team. Inductions are a major contributory factor in retaining newly-appointed staff. They do not need to be long-winded or complex and should cover areas such as core business values, team structures, the purpose and key responsibilities of the role and team members roles, reporting procedures, staff policies, expected standards of behaviour and performance, probationary process, health and safety etc.
Lastly… actively manage staff
If any issues relating to staff come to light manage these immediately including discipline, grievance and performance issues. Carry out regular performance reviews and keep communication open with staff about business performance and their input. This way you will get the best out of your staff, avoid any major issues allowing you to concentrate on your business performance.
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If you would like to discuss any HR issues with Sheetal please give Gill HR Consultancy a call on 07545 838 197 or for information on our HR services please visit https://gillhrconsultancy.com/